Sawiris' Orascom initially financed the launch of Wind Mobile, arguably the strongest of the small wireless companies to have started up over the past five years, but he is no longer involved with the company.

The Harper government at the time changed Canada's foreign ownership laws to allow the Egyptian billionaire to own a majority of Wind's corporate parent. However, the rule changes weren't enough to convince Sawiris that Canada is a good place to invest in telecom.

Canada is among a small group of countries, including China, which are still rejecting foreign capital investment, Sawiris told the CBC.

"I don't know why Canada wants to be matched with China," he said. "There's no real political will here to introduce competition into this closed market."